Funky 4 Corners

Forum followers of South Yorkshire mining village gang culture may wish to know more about the various references to this genre in this thread. Bob Foster led the notorious gang in the early 60s but after seeing Spencer Davis at Doncaster Odeon he became the top Mod in Hemsworth, also enjoying football fame at Hemsworth Grammar where he was spotted by a Burnley FC scout. but had to settle for Frickley Athletic seconds. Anyhow, I digress, the following letter was published in Soul Notes magazine in November 1997 - "Dear Editor. While waiting for my two Standard Poodles to be washed and clipped at Posh Paws, Gravesend I thumbed through the usual waiting room mags.....Reader's Digest, People's Friend etc and came across Soul Notes Sept '97. Although I am not really into Soul, my wife is - she had the stage name of Prescilla Page and did a few recordings for a label called Topper when we lived in Michigan, USA in the 60s. Our favourite track is of course with Pepe the Poodle, a B side if I recall - `Throw the Poor Dog a Bone`. Anyway, I digress. I quite enjoyed the mag until I came to the Bob Foster Column and at that point my whole past life flashed in front of me upon seeing two nightmares from my past. Bob `Stylo` Foster was, in my youth, the notorious leader of the Cross Hills Teddy Boy Gang who hung out at the Kings Head, Hemsworth. After many beatings I had to leave the UK for America. Then, when I returned in the 70s, I thought I was safe by moving to Old Colwyn but, to my horror, I was trapped on a Crosville bus one night by a hooded conductor and an ugly skinhead called `Pants`. I again received a beating and my poodle got a right seeing to. I now live in Kent - away from the violence of the North". I was the person who submitted the letter and although it is fourteen years ago I am still frightened by Foster and the other bloke who I understand now lives in Llandudno.

Can anyone help me with a Joy label discography please? Joy was a 60s subsidiary budget label to President Records but had some nice Soul releases such as Freddie Scott's Shout LP.

Around the mid 70s I went to the late Chris Savory's house on Sheppey and he showed me a single sided, dark green London test pressing of `Our Love is in the Pocket`, what a great coup it would be to have the pair!

In a recent post I prepared on groovesvilleusa.com/blog I mentioned that the story behind Darrell Banks being released on London and then Stateside within days has never been fully explained (to me anyway). I did consult half a dozen collectors whose knowledge I respect but no one could offer any facts. Does anyone know what the true story was?

My brother in law up in Huddersfield has just pointed out a copy of CENtral 1179 for sale on US Amazon. I now only have one copy of my own - wish I had a few more! https://www.amazon.co...&condition=used

I went to the Dells at Trentham Gardens and thought that it would never be surpassed but last night at the Barbican, the Impressions were TRULY AWESOME. Their backing band were as near to the ABC backing as you'll get. The three guy's voices were inspirational and their choreography was so cool. They opened with Gypsy Woman and I challenge anyone not to have a dry eye. And just wait until Fred Cash sings `You've Been Cheatin'` By the way, there's some blond `singer` in the first half warm up and she was EMBARRASSING.

All of these solutions appear to fu*k the B side up, many decades ago I bought a James Barnett on Fame from Soul Bowl that had been super glued on the flip but JA didn't mention that - funny eh! If you are able to align the crack up so that it isn't audible, heat a needle that's held in a cork and using a magnifying glass I just very gently touch the edge of the disc to weld the end of the crack in place. Admittedly it is better on styrene 45s that have a square section edge.

No, but he does mention a notorious Mod gang from a pit village called Hemsworth. They were led by someone with the nick name `Uncle Mort`. Apparently he's still at large and lives in North Wales somewhere.

A big thanks for pointing this out Soul Shrews. I also missed them in Northampton and so am really thrilled you brought this up. Cheers Keith

In The Times 2, Friday March 18th there is an interesting article by Pete Townshend entitled `The Mod in Me`. It stems from the recent SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas where they were debating the world wide importance of Mod culture. The event is called `This is Mod`. Amongst other things he mentions the Dungeon in Nottingham and Pete Stringfellow's "extraordinary record collection".

If anyone is interested, this month's (March) Manifesto magazine has an article on the Impressions prior to signing for ABC - Paramount.

Here's the Little Jr Parker Detroit session details - At United Sound Studios on 8th July 1965 with Wayne Bennett on guitar. `These Kind of Blues 1 & 2` Duke 384. `Why do You Make me Cry` / `Get Away Blues` Duke 406 I would have thought that there would have been more than just these four but if it were just a one day session then four is about right. The Sure Shot sessions are a bit more tricky but I'll post some details when I dig them out. Keith

Bobby Bland recorded all over the place; Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, LA, Nashville, Chicago, NYC, Muscle Shoals, Detroit...... He went to Detroit 28th April 1965 and recorded at United Sound and seven tracks were issued from the session(s) - `These Hands (small but mighty) Duke385. `I Ain't Myself Anymore`, Duke 412. The remainder were LP tracks; `Too Late for Tears`, `Play Girl`, `Let's Get Together` and `Dear Bobby (the note)` were all on Duke LP #79, `The Soul of the Man` and `Sweet Lips of Joy` was on his `Touch of the Blues` LP that came out over here on Island 974. In my view, none of these tracks have little if any trace of a recognisable Detroit house style, by that I refer to a`Solid Hitbound` sort of sound. The only thing that links them is a girl backing, one of whom was Vi Campbell. Duke boss Don Robey had a habit of buying songs out right and putting various writing credits to them, mainly his own or his alias Don Malone. He was secretive in general and so some other sessions may have been held in Detroit but I doubt it. `Keep on Loving Me` the Groovesville song for example was recorded in Muscle Shoals in August 1970 the time when Groovesville owner Don Davis was in Memphis, so who knows what type of hybrid it is, probably a Detroit track with dubbed vocals and produced by Don. Other uptempo tracks such as `Shoes` and `Yum Yum Tree` were recorded in Chicago, the former late Nov - early Dec '66 and the latter produced by Andre Williams on 28th Feb '69. Robey has other Detroit connections that I cover in Groovesville USA.

Hi Dave This brought back many memories for me, thank you. Although I moved to Manchester in '69, I went to the Baths before then and also, as it gained a reputation for spinning Rare Soul I went a few times around '72. Over the years in Manifesto magazine etc I've tried to keep memories of the West Yorkshire Soul scene alive - The Bee Gee, Hernies, The Place, Bin Lid, Tin Chicken, Spinning Disc, Lord Jim's, Mojo etc so it's great to see this post. If anyone is interested there is a Tin Chicken flyer on www.groovesvilleusa.com/blog

For those who have nothing better to do, I've got a two part story on the origins of record centres, with pictures!!!! on my blog.

Thanks for this Tony, I have a backing track only version and I just assumed it was a `harp` with some echo but with your input in place, you could well be right.

Thanks Rod, Occasionally I've also seen white labels of an earlier design, e.g. the vertical Soul type and then the later design on the stock copy.

I've found that those very soft, thick green paper, US made sleeves from the 50s and 60 are the best. They soften with age and that is the key but they went out of production in the mid 70s. I went into Relic Records in the early 90s and the guy in there said that they wanted to order 1000's but they were unobtainable in the US. At around that time, John Anderson had some Soul Bowl ones made up, in Belgium if I recall but they were too harsh.

Does anyone know who played harmonica on the Marvelettes `The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game`? Also, has anyone ever seen a `Globe` copy of their `Keep Off no Trespassing`? Has anyone seen a `Globe` copy of the Isley Brothers `Just Ain't Enough Love`? Thanks

I bought a copy of Alvin Cash, `Saddle Up` on ebay. The description was `G`, plus writing on label but as it is so rare and I'd only seen it around $100 I bid and won for about $30. When it arrived it played OK and the writing turned out to be Alvin's autograph. You can see it on my blog site link below.

About twenty years ago I bought a copy of the Flamingos, `I Was Such A Fool` on End records from a small shop in Brooklyn and bearing the title in mind, the following was beautifully hand written on the label - "To Barbie, I will take your advice. Hope this record doesn't go for us. Love Elaine".

I thought I'd posted this earlier.....anyhow, I sold a stock copy in February on ebay to a guy in Yorkshire for £235.

This Reggae story reminds me of when the late Chris Savory moved from Sheppey in Kent to Newcastle Under Lyme, I guess around 1977? He decided to off load some of his 1000's of 45s rather than lug them up to Staffs. He had been an expert at junk shopping for records for years, publishing a record buyers guide to junk shops. Anyhow, when he started writing for SMG magazine and then started his own HBS mag up he was almost inundated with review copies of any record that might vaguely be associated with R&B. This included 1000's of Reggae 45s. On the weekend that he moved he called in and dropped off two large kitchen waste bins full of Reggae 45s he couldn't shift. There were about 500 but I too couldn't get rid of them - I ended up giving them to a little record shop owner, Paul Nihill for a couple of quid credit. (Paul Nihill was the Olympic silver medallist race walker by the way).

At around the same time as this clear out, I do also recall Tesco getting batches of US Chess / Checker / Cadet 45s in. I still have some with their 10p Delamare sticker on. This tied in with the huge importation of 45s from the Chess group by F L Moore in Dunstable.

Hi Tony. I bow to your relentless logic - especially with a big set up as EMI. Just for arguments sake do you also therefore reckon that stuff on Soul City, Melodisc, Beacon, B&C etc would also follow your suggested output numbers?